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Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Bloody Mary Minestrone

Ok, craaaaaap photo but this is so good we've had it for dinner now 3 nights in a row. Just a simple bean, pasta and veg soup but spiked with a little vodka and worcester sauce. I then added some ground almonds like from the vodka pasta recipe (nod to Veganomicon) to add some creaminess and body.

Bloody Mary Minestrone

serves 3 - 4

• 80g carrot, diced small - about 1 medium

• 50g onion, diced small - 1/2 a medium

• 100g new potatoes, diced - about 2 small to medium sized ones.

• 1 stalk celery, diced small

• 1 large clove garlic, pureed

• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste

• 200g passata - about 200ml

• 1/2 a 400g can of beans, I use flageolet or cannellini - about 3/4 cup

• 500ml veg stock, I made mine with 2 tsp marigold vegan granules

• 70g dry small pasta shapes - about a heaped 1/3 cup, I used orzo here, sometimes small macaroni or shells.

• 1 Tbsp vodka

• 1 tsp vegan worcester sauce, I love Biona Organic

• 1/2 tsp dry mixed herbs

• 1/4 tsp dry basil

• 2 Tbsp ground almonds/almond meal or flour

• freshly ground black pepper

First chop your carrots, celery, onion and potatoes and set aside.

In a pyrex jug measure out the passata. Add to this the paste, vodka, worcester sauce, pureed garlic and herbs. In another jug make up your veg stock with hot water.

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil up over low heat and add the veg. Fry with a few grinds of black pepper until the onions are soft, about 5 - 10 minutes. Add the tomato mixture and veg stock, stir well and bring to the boil.

Add the pasta and stir well, pop the lid on and simmer for about 20 minutes. Now, it may have been my stainless steel pot but I did have a terrible time with the pasta initially sticking while this was cooking and had to stir quite often. Just something to keep in mind - don't just leave it for 20 minutes! It tends to only stick in the beginning.

When there is 5 minutes left add the beans and stir well. When there is 2 minutes left add the ground almonds and stir well. You may need about 100ml more water near the end. Just make sure you add the extra water after the almonds as they will blend into the soup better when it's a bit thick.

Check seasoning - I don't need any salt in this as my veg stock is salty enough, but they are all different. If you do need some salt, celery salt would keep the bloody mary theme going. It's quite filling and satisfying as is with the pasta, beans and potato in there but as with all soups some bread wouldn't go amiss ;-)

Just a few notes:

♥ I parboiled the carrots the second time I made this as despite simmering for 20 minutes the first time, they were still crunchy.

♥ Passata is seived tomatoes, ingredients are 99.4% tomatoes, salt and citric acid and it is completely smooth - no lumps but NOT a paste.

♥ I used orzo for my pasta as I love it and the size and texture is perfect in this but any small pasta would do.

♥ The flageolet beans are really perfect in this but any smallish bean would work.